


The Truth

by ExplodedPen



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-04
Updated: 2007-06-04
Packaged: 2017-11-05 07:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExplodedPen/pseuds/ExplodedPen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I imagined many times, that the people who'd created the fraternisation regulations had never had to go years in space with people so close to you that sometimes you could even feel their breath on your skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth

I imagined many times, that the people who'd created the fraternisation regulations had never had to go years in space with people so close to you that sometimes you could even feel their breath on your skin.

I always imagined that when I returned to Earth, I'd march right up to those people and ask them whether they'd ever tried years of celibacy. Of course these regulations weren't abided by anyway. The temptation of the opposite or even the same sex in some cases, were too strong.

Life on board went on. Relationships were formed. Lies of everlasting love were whispered and false promises of a bright future were murmured in private.

We knew they were lies, we knew the promises were false even as we made them, but we clung to them desperately, hoping beyond hope that the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't just an oncoming train. We lazed in comfortable lies and lay ensnared in a web of deceit.

No one wanted to know the bitter truth.

Occasionally, we would see a relationship break up and would view the harsh reality of truth with pity in our eyes. We would watch the bitter truth and then turn to our lover, whispering the same lies of everlasting love and the same false promises.

The promises were beautiful, but the beauty was only skin deep. The promise to love the other forever and to never leave them.

Then there were the lucky ones. The lucky few within the crew who know the bitter truth, the lucky few who didn't engage in relationships and who regarded the rest of us with a smug look tinged with sadness and regret.

The person you love today may be the person listed on the casualties list tomorrow. On a star ship every day is a new opportunity to prove the promises wrong. Everyday people are injured, some even die and some drift apart from their partner for the simple reason that there is only so much they can cope with in one go.

The fraternisation regulations I realise now, were created by people who knew the bitter truth. People who knew that even those lucky few whose relationship survived the ravages of the star ship life, would eventually succumb to the Bitter Truth.

The reality that love does not go hand in hand with star ship life. The reality that love is fleeting. The reality that love blinds you and makes you do stupid things. The reality that the fraternisation regulations are there as a protective barrier, a futile attempt to protect people from facing the bitter truth.

The bitter truth is this: love will only lead to pain.


End file.
